Mystic Timbers

By the mid-2010s, Kings Island's Rivertown land already held two of the park's most respected coasters in Diamondback and The Beast, and the park turned to Great Coasters International — a manufacturer known for terrain-hugging wooden layouts — to fill the remaining wooded acreage between them.

GCI custom-designed Mystic Timbers around an abandoned-lumber-company backstory: as the train climbs the 109-foot lift hill, a security-guard voice warns riders to stay away from a shed near the ride's exit, then the ride delivers 16 airtime moments across 3,265 feet of track that weaves past the K.I. & Miami Valley Railroad and the White Water Canyon rapids ride before ducking into a mid-course tunnel.

The ride kept its true finale a mystery for its entire first season — what happens inside the shed changes without warning — and that uncertainty became as much a draw as the layout itself, earning Amusement Today's Best New Ride award for 2017.

Mystic Timbers remains one of the most re-ridden coasters in the park specifically because guests want to see whether the shed's payoff has changed since their last visit, and it continues to anchor Rivertown alongside its older wood and steel neighbors.